By Haywood                                              S.B. No. 71

      75R1144 GWK-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the punishment for certain defendants convicted of the

 1-3     offense of issuance of a bad check.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 32.41(f), Penal Code, is amended to read

 1-6     as follows:

 1-7           (f)  An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor,

 1-8     except that the offense is a Class B misdemeanor if the defendant

 1-9     has previously been convicted two or more times of an offense under

1-10     this section.

1-11           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies

1-12     only to the punishment for an offense committed on or after the

1-13     effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an

1-14     offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any

1-15     element of the offense occurs before the effective date.

1-16           (b)  The punishment for an offense committed before the

1-17     effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the

1-18     offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect

1-19     for that purpose.

1-20           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-21           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.